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There are Americans today, holding themselves up as conservatives, who argue that one can be both an atheist and a conservative. This is absurd. There is a God, He made us and all things, and His immutable moral laws apply to all men, in all nations, at all times. These fundamental truths--recognition of which is not confined to any particular religious denomination--were embraced by our Founding Fathers. A social and legal order consistent with these fundamental truths is at the very heart of what modern conservatives seek to conserve.

Washington Free Beacon 2013 Man of the Year Gary Sinise treated 50 wounded warriors to Disney World earlier this month, the Orange County Register reports.
Honoring the military members was the idea of the Gary Sinise Foundation, which assists military families and first-responders. The actor co-starred in “Forrest Gump,” playing Lt. Dan, who lost his legs in Vietnam. The foundation teamed up with American Airlines, Disney and others to help with arrangements for the four-day trip.

The past fifty years have featured an explosion of promiscuity. I do not argue that there was no sexual sin prior to 1960, but it is a far wider problem today both in quantity and degree. And the results of promiscuity are demonstrable and terrible: STDs, AIDS, teenage pregnancy, abortion, a devastation of marriage and family. Divorce rates have soared. Co-habitation and other alternative arrangements have proliferated.
Children are the ones who suffer by not being raised in two-parent families under the formative influence of a father and mother, male and female. Sure enough, under stress, the rates of Juvenile delinquency have gone up even as test scores and graduation rates have diminished. Promiscuity also leads to poverty since the chief cause of poverty in this country is single motherhood. Children living in fatherless homes are 5 times more likely to live in poverty, 9 times more likely to drop out of school, 37% more likely to abuse drugs, 2 times more likely to be incarcerated, 2.5 times more likely to become a teen parent, 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders, 32 times more likely to run away

Watching Season 2 of “House of Cards.” Not to be a scold or humorless, but do Washington politicians understand how they make themselves look when they embrace the show and become part of its promotion by spouting its famous lines? Congressmen only work three days a week. Each shot must have taken two hours or so—the setup, the crew, the rehearsal, the learning the line. How do they have time for that? Why do they think it’s good for them?

CMR buddy Chelsea Zimmerman writes a very disturbing piece about the future of humanity:

This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met to discuss allowing the creation of human beings with three genetic parents to proceed to clinical trials. That is, whether to allow human “three-parent embryos” to be implanted and possibly grow to term.
There are currently two different techniques for manufacturing three-parent embryos, the purpose of which is to combat mitochondrial disease. The first, being developed at Britain’s Newcastle University, is known as pronuclear transfer (PNT) and swaps DNA between two fertilized human eggs, intentionally destroying multiple embryos in the process.

These two are on fire with their faith. It's nice to see. I hope the film does well.

I read the Bible from beginning to end when I was a freshman in college. I wasn't seeking any type of spiritual enlightenment or take the first step down a righteous path. No, I spent the better part of my first year of college reading the Good Book so that I would better understand and spot various religious references in films and literature. But the unexpected upshot of having a semi-literate knowledge of the Bible has been in watching stories from the Old and New Testaments get turned into movies and noticing what has been included and what has been taken out.
When I saw that "Survivor" and "Sarah Palin's Alaska" executive producer Mark Burnett and his wife, actress Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel"), were producing a 10-part miniseries amounting to the Bible's greatest hits, I was intrigued but not really moved to watch. I wasn't surprised to see that it actually beat out "The Walking Dead" in the ratings for the weeks when the two series went head to head. Because of the immense popularity of the miniseries, the makers revisited the five episodes that covered the life of Jesus and constructed a nearly 2.5-hour feature film called SON OF GOD, starring Portuguese-born actor Diogo Morgado as Jesus, as well as Downey as his mother, Mary (as an older woman).

Save Us. Ashley Judd in NBC Texas Church Drama
Is NBC crazy? In this day and age, it takes real chutzpa to develop a “provocative drama set against the backdrop of a prominent Michigan mosque where faith, family and corruption are explored in equal measure.” Wait, back that up. Replace “Michigan mosque” with “Texas church.” Now that makes sense.

CNN's Chris Cuomo made no secret of his support of left-wing LGBT activists on Monday's New Day, as he spotlighted the controversy over a proposed bill in Arizona that would protect the religious liberties of business owners. Cuomo berated a guest from the conservative lawyer for her defense of the bill: "You don't need even need this law unless what you want to do is enforce intolerance...That's what it seems like you are doing to me, and it seems pretty obvious."

So Long, Dad…and enjoy heaven’s golf courses. It might mean waiting for a tee time in Purgatory for awhile, but with this upcoming Saturday being a First Saturday, maybe it won’t be that long after all.
Early this morning, my dad passed away in his home, in the company of his wife and eldest daughter. It was expected, as he had been in hospice care since mid-January. It was a peaceful, happy death.

The Christian militiamen know hundreds of Muslims are hiding here on the grounds of the Catholic church … The priests here in Carnot have given away all their money to try and keep the anti-Balaka [Christian militia] at bay. There are no aid groups here apart from a clinic operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. The Catholic church, though, is pledging to continue its work here no matter what the personal risk. "For us they are not Muslims or Christians. They are people—people in danger," says the Rev. Dieu-Seni Bikowo.

Lawmakers in Belgium approved a measure last week that will allow doctors to euthanize children of all ages.
As previously reported, the Belgian Senate overwhelmingly approved a child euthanization bill in December, sending it to the lower legislative house. On Thursday, the lower house voted 86-44 in favor of the measure, despite some international criticism. Belgium’s King Philippe is expected to sign the bill into law.

This is a letter I just sent to a priest friend. I wrote it because I don’t believe we priests should be frightened anymore. I agree with a recent post that said, while we take our time, souls are being lost. We all know, in our bones, that God wants this … let’s simply obey and allow God to bless our obedience!!!

Dear Father,

I wanted to write to update you on the amazing things God is doing here …

Archdiocesan Catholic Social Services (CSS) now has another tool in its arsenal for the protection of unborn life.
During a ceremony at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center on Tuesday, Feb. 18, Bishop John J. McIntyre officially blessed a new van that will provide mobile outreach to pregnant women and new mothers throughout Philadelphia and the surrounding counties under a program titled “Beautiful Beginnings.”

Imagine the heartache of the cis-trans male who opens up Facebook and realizes there’s no gender category for him to choose from. It’s only male and female. This is just too outré for words.
Doesn’t everyone know that gender is a social construct – that gender is malleable and may change from moment to moment? One could be five or six or seven of them before lunchtime and a few dozen more before climbing under the covers and turning into a butterfly, or whatever.

This is what Christian unity looks like. It doesn't ignore the differences that we have with our non-Catholic brothers and sisters.
It isn't triumphalistic.
It isn't us vs them.
Rather, it is the love of Christ for all people. Jesus prayed for Christian unity and we must all acknowledge that the fact is - division within Christianity is both scandalous and a counter-sign to a God of unity to a world that needs Him.
So, Pope Francis recorded a video for his friend, Tony Palmer (An Anglican Episcopal Communion of the CEEC (Celtic Anglican Tradition) Bishop.) He took the video to show to Kenneth Copeland Ministries and the unthinkable has started to happen - we actually pray for one another and acknowledge one another as true brothers and sisters.

The University of Notre Dame’s Debartolo Performing ArtsCenter recently showed a NC-17 rated movie about a 15 year old girl’s lesbian relationship with an older woman, according to the center’s website.

I get why Charles Cooke and Mark Hemingway are irritated by this. Having an NBC reporter say “At such a young age, Wise has the lifestyle of an adult” about a 23-year-old man does make me feel like I’ve just woken up in some “Planet of the Apes” scenario where a race of Pajama Boys now rules the world.

Catholic Olympian and international skating superstar Kim Yuna is a role model not only of dedication and athleticism but also an example of how to live the faith publicly, a fan says.
Seminarian for the Archdiocese of Detroit and blog writer Evan Pham told CNA on Feb. 11 that he was struck by Kim's simple act of praying on ice during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

The president issued an executive order last week purporting to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 an hour. The order is unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court made clear in Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer that “the President’s power, if any, to issue the [executive] order must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself.”

Let’s say your high school freshman son or daughter asks for your help with a particularly difficult biology homework assignment.
So you walk over, glance at the worksheet on DNA and blood type, and notice questions about a mother trying to determine the identity of her baby’s father.
Then question reads in part: “She had the state take a blood test of potential fathers. Based on the information in this table, why was the baby taken away by the state after the test?”

Some tough love came from the mother of Norwegian cross-country skier Martin Johnsrud Sundby. The skier had a poor showing in the 15-kilometer race on Friday, ending up 13th, nearly two minutes after the event's gold medalist, Dario Cologna of Switzerland. His mother didn’t even attempt to hide her disappointment.
"You're the worst Norwegian,” Gro Johnsrud Langslet said of her son on DBTV. “You should go home."
Let’s hope those words were meant to be taken lightly, although it didn't seem like she had much faith as her son neared the finish line during the competition. Langslet was heard saying, "Look at that. He doesn't stand a chance."

Another Jewish historian concludes that the latest research ‘erases’ the image of a Pius XII indifferent to the fate of the Jews
Rabbi Dalin thinks that Pope Pius should be declared Righteous among the Nations: it would only be common justice if he were

In a Thursday night speech at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will warn of a “silent war” on religious liberty in America and urge states to pass laws designed to block overreach by the Obama administration.
The 4,500-word address, shared first with POLITICO, touches on several hot-button issues, including same-sex marriage and contraception. Jindal, a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate trying to woo social conservatives, argues that liberals will use the mantra of anti-discrimination to force people to violate their religious beliefs.

The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans is taking a stand against a new Planned Parenthood clinic, pledging not do business with any individual or business participating in the construction or opening of the facility.
"The archdiocese, including its churches, schools, apartments for the elderly, and nursing homes," will not "enter into business relationships with any person or organization that participates in actions that are essential to making this abortion facility a reality," Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond wrote in a Feb. 1 open letter published in the Catholic newspaper The Clarion-Herald.
"This policy applies to all businesses regardless of religious affiliation or non-affiliation," Archbishop Aymond wrote, further stating that "affiliation or support of Planned Parenthood by Catholics is a matter of serious scandal."

So, exorcism might seem like fiction. But did you know that the Vatican has actually encouraged every Catholic diocese to have a trained exorcist on staff?
A local exorcism expert is traveling around the world to train those priests.
Once he was a skeptic, but he tells KDKA’s Andy Sheehan, after assisting in nearly 100 exorcisms, his experiences have made him a believer.

Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers!
As each year in the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord, we are celebrating the Sunday of the Holy Family [according to the Calendar of Paul VI]. Our thoughts go to our families as we contemplate the situation of the modern-day family. Today’s Gospel tells us that in difficult and unclear situations, the Family of Nazareth tried to understand and fulfil God’s will and by so doing came out renewed of such situations. This behaviour tells us that today like in the past, obeying God and His sometimes impenetrable will guarantees family happiness.

Thomas More Society attorneys along with Illinois Right to Life issued a women’s public health memorandum demanding the Illinois Attorney General’s office appeal Judge Alexander White’s decision to permit a $77 payment to satisfy the Illinois Department of Public Health’s $36,000 fine against Women’s Aid Clinic.
According to the women’s public health memo, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) conducted its first health inspection in 15 years of Women’s Aid Clinic on September 9, 2011. Following the inspection, the IDPH shut down the women’s clinic on an emergency basis, assessing countless sanitary violations. Some of these violations included storing frozen tv dinners in the same biohazard refrigerator as eight containers of fetal tissue.

WHAT IT MEANS 2 BE IN AN IRISH FAMILY
1) You will never play professional basketball.
2) You swear very well.
3) At least one of your cousins is a fireman, cop, bar owner, funeral home owner or holds political office.
4) You think you sing very well.
5) You have no idea how to make a long story short!

Dr. Kelly Flanagan, a licensed clinical psychologist and happy father of three, keeps a fantastic blog, full of wonderful opinions and personal advice. He has made a habit out of writing letters to his young daughter, to help teach her about the world. But not only his daughter could benefit from reading his wise words.
Check out what he had to say about the make-up and fashion industry. They are great words to live by.

A couple in Australia is refusing their doctor’s recommendations to obtain an abortion after they discovered that their unborn baby has a rare condition that results in the development of two brains and two faces on the same skull.
Renee Young and Simon Howie have seven children, and were excited about their new pregnancy when they were informed last month that their unborn baby, a girl, had craniofacial duplication, also known as disprospus. The baby has a strong heartbeat, and is perfectly normal other than her face.

"I always make a Sign of the Cross before my jumps. Since I was little. It is not because I am afraid, but it is a symbol of faith. Every jump I dedicate to the Lord God. I am not ashamed of that." - Kamil Stoch
Here are some quotes from Kamil Stoch, the Polish ski jumper who dominated the field in Sunday's Ski Jump event at the Olympics in Sochi. By the way, the Polish media which is usually anti-Catholic, knowing he is very Catholic, asked Stoch whether he missed Mass since the event was being held on a Sunday. He simply replied: "I went to Mass on Saturday evening".

Fr. Barron says that if the Church lowers its standards when it comes to sexuality, why not lower them in other areas as well.

The Catholic Church is often criticized as rigorist, unrealistic, and unbending, especially in regard to its teaching on sexuality. How could anyone, we hear over and again, possibly live up to the Church's demands concerning masturbation, artificial contraception, or sex outside of marriage? Moreover, every poll that comes out suggests that increasing numbers of Catholics themselves don't subscribe to these moral demands. Few expect the Church to acquiesce to the moral laxity of the environing culture, but even many faithful Catholics think that it ought at least to soften its moral doctrine, adjust a bit to the times, become a tad more realistic.
I wonder whether I might address these questions a bit obliquely, shifting the focus from the sexual arena into another area of moral concern.

Taking the word oppressed to actually mean “oppressed,” rather than “favored by our liberal rulers,” who do you suppose are the most oppressed religious group in the world? It isn’t Muslims, who along with commies do most of the oppressing. It is Christians:
Restrictions, harassment, and intimidation towards people who practice their religion increased in every major region of the world in 2012 except the Americas, with Christians the major target, says a new report by the Pew Research Center.

Hundreds of people have flocked to a small town in northern Israel to view a statue of the Virgin Mary that residents say "weeps" oil.
Members of a Christian family from Tarshiha, near the Lebanon border, say they have witnessed a miracle in their living room.
Osama Khoury said Tuesday that his wife Amira found the statue "covered with oil" recently. Amira said the statue "spoke to her" and told her not to be afraid. After a neighbor witnessed the oil, word soon spread.

“Today, I want to talk to you about time. And God wants to talk to you about time; about what you’re doing with your time!” The preacher was standing at the front of the subway car. He had a sheaf of white paper in his hands; as he preached, he passed flyers out to all who would accept them. I was returning home from the Urbana Theological Seminary. Their conference on Tolkien and the Arts had been bruised, but not broken, by a storm that dumped eight inches of snow on Chicago, and that turned the streets of Champagne and Urbana into treacherous frozen tracts. The attendance was sparse; everyone had been told to stay home unless they must travel. But those who attended were universally interested and interesting.

In the name of protecting children,the United Nations is now preaching to the Vatican. A report on the Holy See—released by a U.N. committee last week to much media fanfare—alleged that tens of thousands of children have been abused by Catholic clerics, and that the Vatican has helped cover it up.
The committee strongly urged the Vatican: "Ensure a transparent sharing of all archives which can be used to hold the abusers accountable as well as those who concealed their crimes and knowingly placed offenders in contact with children."
That's rich coming from the U.N., which has still not solved its own festering problems of peacekeeper sex abuse, including the rape of minors. Exposing abusers and holding them to account is a great idea. The Vatican has spent years addressing the scandal of its own past handling of such cases. But the U.N. hardly engages in the transparency it is now promoting.

Though Abraham Lincoln was neither baptized nor joined a church of any kind, he was the most spiritually minded president in American history. His faith was wrought on the anvil of anguish, both personal and national, and because of this he has much to teach us in our own age of anxiety.
Some historians interpret Lincoln as a proto-secularist, not only because he never professed Christian faith in a public way but also because he made a number of skeptical comments about Christian teaching in his early years. But it’s well to remember that even great people of faith, including Mother Teresa, experience dark nights of the soul. John Calvin once said that all true faith is tinged by doubt.

A Catholic Priest’s New Awakening!
A few days ago, I encouraged the pest control guy (while he was setting traps in my house) to come and check out the Mass on Sunday morning. Just yesterday, I said the same thing to the checkout guy at Kwik Trip. Both of these guys had admitted that they had left the Church years ago.
Two days ago, I was standing in someone’s kitchen with a couple of guys, and I got talking about how Confession is so amazing and, with that simple prayer of absolution, we get “do-overs;” we are made a brand new person. They both admitted they had not gone in decades and, two minutes later, we were stepping into the next room to celebrate that Sacrament. They both emerged with HUGE smiles on their faces and, I believe, a new incentive to get back into their faith. I’ve been doing stuff like this a lot lately.

When I first read this post, I thought I would just delete it like the rest. I know your intentions were to cause me suffering, and if causing me suffering means you win, then I guess you have. To be honest, lying in this hospital bed, it is young women like you that I think about the most.
I was once like you. I was once told that aborting my children was the answer to my life. I was once told that my boyfriend too would have to drop out of the University he attended, and I wouldn’t be able to attend the following year after I graduated from High School. The funny thing was, because of my son, my ex-boyfriend and I qualified for several grants and scholarships. In fact, I’m one of the few people I know that was able to go to school without taking out student loans. Which is probably why I’m a home owner at 26.

A baby boy was recently born in Pennsylvania after his life was spared from abortion through a miraculous series of events.
Baby Roman was 18 weeks gestation when his parents went to Planned Parenthood in West Chester last July for an abortion.
“I went to Planned Parenthood because I was stuck in my own world doing everything that I wanted to do,” Roman’s mother, Cartier, who had a previous abortion in 2012, told Christian News Network. “I was going to go get another abortion.”

It’s the ultimate confirmation of the notion that stress is good for you. A team of researchers from Japan and Boston have discovered that subjecting ordinary cells to stress will make them revert to a state in which they can make any cell in the body. It is an astonishingly simple door to the promise of personalised medicine which has obsessed scientists for the last 15 years.
“It’s a startling result that makes you stand up and go, ‘Wow!’” says George Q. Daley, a leading stem cell researcher at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. “With an equal dose of amazement and skepticism.”

Excerpted from The Hollywood Reporter: Gerald Molen, an Oscar-winning producer of Schindler’s List, is accusing the Academy of discriminating against a religious movie in revoking its nomination in the best song category.
In a feisty letter to Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, a copy of which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Molen attacks the group’s Jan. 29 decision to rescind the nomination for Alone Yet Not Alone, an overtly faith-based film, over allegations that its songwriter Bruce Broughton, a former Academy governor, improperly lobbied members of the song branch. If Broughton and co-writer Dennis Spiegel are ineligible for an Oscar merely for asking people to give their tune a listen, he argues, more Oscar winners should be required to return their statues because they all promoted their work to some degree or another.

The United Nations issued a report today on its investigation into the unforgivable sex-abuse scandal that victimized children and undermined the many positive things the Catholic Church has stood for. It’s a reminder that we all have an obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us, especially our children. This obligation exists not because we are Americans, Catholics, or of any other nationality or faith. It exists because we are humans.
Unfortunately, the U.N. also chose to use the opportunity to make political statements about Catholic doctrine on abortion, contraception, and marriage, issues at the core of the Church’s teachings about human rights and the dignity of life. In doing so, the U.N. — with the seemingly limitless worldwide injustices it could be condemning or investigating — trampled on the religious-freedom principles outlined in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Abortions have fallen to their lowest rate since the Supreme Court enshrined it as a constitutional right in 1973, according to a new report by the Guttmacher Institute: 16.9 abortions for every 1,000 women between 15 and 44, versus 16.3 per 1,000 women back in 1973.
Why this is happening is another matter. Cue the media debates.

A lot of attention has been paid to President Obama’s less than forthright efforts to sell the Affordable Care Act when it was still pending before the Congress. He told voters that the law would have no consequences for people who were happy with their already-existing coverage: “If you like your health care, you can keep your health care.” But when the law was implemented, it turned out that that promise was no good. Reform by falsehood is not exactly the way of democratic self-government, so this issue has deserved all the attention it has gotten

I’m used to being called a fool (and worse) as a result of my decision to be a Catholic. I’m told that being a Catholic woman is just like being trapped in a FLDS cult, so I guess I’m too brainwashed to realize I’m being oppressed.

George Stephanopoulos must be spending too much of his free time watching MSNBC as he used their talking points to attack Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) during an interview on This Week on February 2.
The Republican congressman appeared with the ABC host and former Press Secretary for President Bill Clinton on Sunday morning and was immediately hit with a barrage of attacks over his opposition to President Obama’s use of executive orders to his views on poverty. Stephanopoulos went so far as to suggest that Pope Francis would reject Paul’s conservative philosophy and claimed that, “You don't think he'd endorse your budget, do you?”

There’s been a strange controversy over the now rescinded Oscar nomination for “Alone Yet Not Alone,” the song by quadriplegic Christian author Joni Eareckson Tada for an independent movie of the same name. The nomination was reputedly “controversial” because it’s a religious song for a faith-based film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Board of Governors explained that there had been inappropriate lobbying by the song composer, who’s a former board governor. The composer says his mere email advocacy pales next to more typically sophisticated media campaigns for big budget Hollywood film songs. It’s reportedly the first time the Academy has rescinded a nomination.